Hello.
I've purchased an Acer P3-171 tablet, and installed my favourite OpenSuSE 13.1 on it. After reading Linux Format magazine article about Linux distros on tablet PCs, I was sure I'll get a system comparable, if not superior, to Windows 8. However, things turned out to be a bit disappointing.
First of all, I wasn't even able to install SuSE with YaST installer, because for some reason the backlight switched off as soon as the installation process started. I could see the GUI if I looked really close and lit the screen with a flashlight, but it was still impossible to install the system. I had to buy a microHDMI cable and use external screen to install SuSE.
Then I tried to set up a decent virtual keyboard, but to no avail. GOK can't switch layout, eekboard was downright broken, Florence didn't work, Kvkbd and Xvkbd were unusable, etc. I still can't type without an external hardware keyboard.
No multitouch, of course. This video made me sure there is no problem with it in Linux (especially considering that the video is 4 years old), but in both Gnome 3 and KDE multitouch does not work at all.
I had to install a Firefox addon to get kinetic scrolling. In all other windows the swipe gesture just selects the text.
There were lots of other frustrations, so I'm asking here: am I missing something? Maybe there is a proper distro for touchscreen devices like TabletPC, but I just overlooked it?
My favourite desktop, XFCE, works fine, but unfortunately it is completely unusable when you have nothing but a touchscreen.
KDE is rather handy, but it does not even have a 'context menu on long tap' feature as Gnome 3.
Gnome 3 is not as abysmal on tablet as it is on desktop, but it's still far from what I call usable. Still, I could make myself to use it if it had a proper virtual keyboard with layout changing feature.
Plasma Active on x86 is only supported as Kubuntu Active distro, which comes only in i386 version.
Thank you in advance. Any advice will be highly appreciated.
I've purchased an Acer P3-171 tablet, and installed my favourite OpenSuSE 13.1 on it. After reading Linux Format magazine article about Linux distros on tablet PCs, I was sure I'll get a system comparable, if not superior, to Windows 8. However, things turned out to be a bit disappointing.
First of all, I wasn't even able to install SuSE with YaST installer, because for some reason the backlight switched off as soon as the installation process started. I could see the GUI if I looked really close and lit the screen with a flashlight, but it was still impossible to install the system. I had to buy a microHDMI cable and use external screen to install SuSE.
Then I tried to set up a decent virtual keyboard, but to no avail. GOK can't switch layout, eekboard was downright broken, Florence didn't work, Kvkbd and Xvkbd were unusable, etc. I still can't type without an external hardware keyboard.
No multitouch, of course. This video made me sure there is no problem with it in Linux (especially considering that the video is 4 years old), but in both Gnome 3 and KDE multitouch does not work at all.
I had to install a Firefox addon to get kinetic scrolling. In all other windows the swipe gesture just selects the text.
There were lots of other frustrations, so I'm asking here: am I missing something? Maybe there is a proper distro for touchscreen devices like TabletPC, but I just overlooked it?
My favourite desktop, XFCE, works fine, but unfortunately it is completely unusable when you have nothing but a touchscreen.
KDE is rather handy, but it does not even have a 'context menu on long tap' feature as Gnome 3.
Gnome 3 is not as abysmal on tablet as it is on desktop, but it's still far from what I call usable. Still, I could make myself to use it if it had a proper virtual keyboard with layout changing feature.
Plasma Active on x86 is only supported as Kubuntu Active distro, which comes only in i386 version.
Thank you in advance. Any advice will be highly appreciated.